Mud
by Yekaterina Vera
Summary: Cloud just wants to play in the mud like the other kids, but they don't want to play with him so he has to have fun on his own.
1. Chapter 1

It was abnormally warm out today. It was only around 60°F, but to the village of Nibelheim, it was hot. A lot of the snow was melted and created a lot of mud. The adults were slightly confused at the temperature, but paid no mind as the children were outside happily playing in something that wasn't snow for once. There was one child though, that wasn't playing in the mud like the others. That child was Cloud Strife.

None of the other kids wanted to play with Cloud and he wasn't sure why. Was he boring? Does he smell funny? He didn't think so, but just in case, he gave himself a testing sniff. Nope. The only things he smelled like were the laundry soap his mom made and a hint of the syrup that he'd accidentally spilled on his pants this morning. Maybe they didn't like the smell of his laundry soap. "Whatever. Who cares what they think anyway?" he thought angrily, suddenly sitting up in his bed. He didn't need an invite to go have fun in the mud! He'd just find someplace away from them, with more mud than in the streets where the other kids were playing. "The woods! There's sure to be plenty of mud there." he muttered to himself while changing into some clothes more appropriate for mud-playing.

Cloud told his mom that he was going to go play in the mud, and accidentally-on-purpose neglected to mention where he was going, while trying not to look to guilty. He knew that if she knew where he was planning to go, she wouldn't let him go. He didn't think he fooled her though. As he left she'd given him a look filled with suspicion. "Seriously though? It's not like there's monsters or something out there." he scoffed to himself as he started the trek up to the woods.

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><p><strong>Ridiculously short, I know, but I couldn't spit anything out. I just wrote this on a small wave of inspiration. I have no clue where I'm going with this, so let me know if you have any ideas for me.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm lost," Cloud thought looking around at the trees around him and the quickly setting sun above him. And what's worse, Cloud could swear something was following him. He heard a leaf crunch behind him, so he turned around, expecting to see some horrible nameless monster, only to see some Tifa and the other girls that she was always hanging around. Cloud's face immediately turned red and he looked down at his feet. See, little Cloud had a crush on Tifa and all of the adults, bar Tifa's father, thought it was the cutest thing since butter. Every time Tifa was around or mentioned to Cloud, he would turn red and get all flustered.

Tifa's friends giggled at Cloud and Tifa looked worried. "Are you okay Cloud? We saw you go into the forest and decided to follow you, but if you're getting sick, you should go home. Don't you know it's dangerous here?" Tifa said, whispering the last part like it was top secret. Cloud was saved from having to answer because at that moment, a huge Nibel wolf jumped out of the bushes. All of the kids screamed like girls, even Cloud which he would deny fervently later, and hugged each other. The wolf growled and started to slowly stalk towards them. One of the girls whimpered, and Cloud thought to himself, "What am I doing? I'm a man, I'm supposed to be protecting them, not cowering with them." And so, Cloud picked up a stick, and after taking a moment to picture what he must look like -like one of the heroes from the stories his ma was always telling him, or so Cloud thought- he threw the stick right at the wolf.

He missed. The stick was thrown right in front of the wolf and it looked down at it for a second. Cloud took that second to turn and run behind the cluster of girls. The wolf looked back up and crouched getting ready to pounce. It gathered it hind legs, and leaped straight for them. But it didn't get them. A big furry, purple thing jumped at the wolf from behind them and tackled it to the ground. The children stared wide-eyed as the purple thing, a canine from the look of the teeth, dragged the wolf further into the forest. They listened as the sounds got fainter and fainter, though it didn't sound like it was getting farther away. After a short while, the purple thing came back, with blood all over it. Someone whimpered as it pranced up to them. It stared at the children for a while then nudged one of the girls in the front. She giggled and scratched it's ears. It closed it's eyes in contentment, and the rest of the kids relaxed.

They all circled around it, and started to pet it. For a long while, all the children did was pet and play with the 'doggy' as they named it. Back in the village, people were freaking out. Where were the children? They made a search party of the parents whose children were missing and they left the village to search. When they finally found the children, the sight they saw was terrifying. There was their children, all bloody and lying in the mud next to an equally bloody purple monster. As they found out later, the children and 'Doggy' were just tired from playing so much. At the time though, they thought the monster had killed their children. Tifa's mom fainted. Some of the others screamed, and the Mayor turned almost as purple as the monster. The children all sat up startled from their nap, and when they saw their parents, burst into explanations. They all knew they weren't allowed in the forest. They were shushed and dragged back home, along with Tifa's mom, leaving 'Doggy' all alone. Though 'Doggy' soon turned back into an extremely embarrassed human who went back to the ShinRa mansion to fix his coffin and go back to sleep.

Back at the village, they were all welcomed back with tons of questions as to where the children were, what they were doing and why were they so bloody. Every thing was settled down and explained and the children managed to get away with only a warning not to do it again as punishment from the combined forces of their puppy dog faces. The children were all separated and taken back to their homes, but not before promising to play with each other in the future. And that's how Cloud's friendship with the town's girls started. Now he was in for years of playing with dolls, dressing up in their mother's clothes and makeovers. Consequently, Cloud was gay.

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><p><strong>So I decided to mix the suggestions that I got for the story and I hope you liked how it turned out. :)<strong>


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